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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

A couple of years ago, I had a local sign shop make me up some yard signs. I gave my customers (located in high traffic areas) a small discount if they were willing to display my sign in their yard for a couple of weeks, or until I was back around that way to pick it up. Everyone was very happy to do it for me. I only had four signs made up, but would strategically place them in the different towns that I service. I had people tell me, "I see your signs all over town." I never told them that I only have four and just move them around. LOL! Here's a picture of one...

Also, we have a couple of very large basketball tournaments in our area. I made up this ad to run on the tournament program. I have learned that it's always good to be able to track your marketing to see how successful it is, so this year I will be adding a coupon so I can track the ad's success. There is a lot of down time between games, and the only thing people have to do is sit and look at the ads in the program. I even reserve the space below the basket team at the school where I teach.

It also helps to have a professional looking website and facebook presence. Here is the cover photo I created for my facebook fan page...

as well as having a cool logo...

I designed all of these in Microsoft Word. I also have a yellow pages ad. When I set the ad up, the customer service agent asked me if he could call me back after researching how I could set my ad apart from my competitors. (I really don't have any in my area.) I humored him and said sure. In a few days, he called me back said "Well, Mr. Hassell, you really don't have a whole lot of competitors, your ad is probably fine as it is." He recommended a website called www.getlisted.com It is a way to be sure your website and company are found when people do a search online.

I found out last week that Vistaprint does t-shirts and polo shirts. I was able to design what I wanted on my computer and upload it directly to their site. I just ordered one for now to see how I like it. I'm thinking about doing some t-shirts to give to my students at school to help advertise.

My problem with vistaprint is its way to easy, I end up buying all kinds of stuff I really don't need. I have gotten window decals for the car, car magnets, fridge magnets, pens, 4 different kinds of postcards, business cards, poster adds etc.. I have my eye on some shirts now also.

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Stewart MoorePiano Technician North Central and North East Kansas

I always leave my business card on the piano, with the date the piano was tuned. Taking a cue from the oil change people, the next time I get business cards printed, I think I'm going to make a place for "Next service due on__ __ ___" with a place to put the date.

I always leave my business card on the piano, with the date the piano was tuned. Taking a cue from the oil change people, the next time I get business cards printed, I think I'm going to make a place for "Next service due on__ __ ___" with a place to put the date.

What do you think?

I'd forget without those oil change reminders, so this seems like a great idea!

I agree with pianotune2 too. I hate for any signature to be visible. I do sign pianos, my whole family does, most tuners around here do but, anyone with any valor, signs it some place where only the next tuner sees it. That way, I can see, oh, so, I filed hammers and regulated the piano on this date. I'd forgotten about that or something else...

I LOVE seeing the service records of my grandfather John Groot whom I never met dating back from the 1920's! And my dad, who is no longer living... Sometimes he would write, "HI JER!" In them, that brings back memories.

I wore one of the above shirts today for the first time and got two new customers, just by them seeing my shirt, one was in a local Chinese restaurant and the other was in my chiropractor's office. Crazy! Why didn't I get these sooner.

Great Job on your marketing Ryan! Those shirts look great! It's a good feeling when you can execute an idea and get new customers from it.

I recently launched a brand new piano tuning directory website that I would like to invite you to check out. I just put up a new video on YouTube explaining it briefly if you want to check it out, it's free.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JzH004qcZ8

I do not have any tuners in MO listed yet, so you could be the first...

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Brandon Buchholzer - Presidentwww.PianoTunersByState.com-Connecting Professionals in the Piano Industry with the People Who Need Their Services. List Your Service With Us...It's Free-

Jerry,The pictures I posted above are not from Vistaprints. They were done by a friend who was our former FACS (home ec) teacher. She made me four shirts in exchange for a free tuning. I did order one from Vistaprints, and was OK with it when it came in, but after seeing how clean and precise the ones my friend made were, the one from Vistaprints looks kind of crappy now. Apparently when you take a computer generated image and import it into your sewing machine there is a lot of clean up work that has to be done. It appears that Vistaprint didn't do that. Now that my friend has my logo saved in her sewing machine it will be very easy to just make a few more shirts the next time I need them. Maybe like next year when her pianos needs a tuning again. As I recall the Vistaprints shirt was about $30 plus a one time fee to digitize your logo.

Marty,Thanks! I think I like the blue one more than the black one. After working a day in the black one, it shows a lot of lint and piano dust. Besides that the psychological effect of the color blue is trust...and it brings out my blue eyes...or so I'm told.. :-)

Re: Magnetic signs. I used to have some. Then I splurged and wrapped my car. Well, not completely, but you can see it a mile away. Now people walk up to me at gas stations and once, I was even flagged down as I was driving. Lights flashing, horn honking. She just wanted a card. I thought my car was on fire!

I got a call from a lady this week. She said she chose me because she saw my ad in the yellow pages and saw the link to my website. (I'm the only technician in the area with a website) She said she liked what she saw and decided to call me.

Print Advertising as it is called in the Advertising business has long since not worked. Something else that is a waste of time are those sign flippers that you see on the sidewalks. For what those business owners pay to have those people out there they could have gotten a nice juicy radio /TV spot during peak hours.

When I get my phone books each year they are the perfect height to prop up a piano with a broken wheel. What works for me are the magnetic signs on the small truck and the big vinyl graphics on the big truck. If I am slow sometimes I will go out and get stuck in rush hour traffic which helps a lot.

Good old fashioned word of mouth is still the best and as far as Angies list goes, I am very skeptical of a " list" that sends me random emails to " Rate" businesses based on their websites or ad profile and tells me it's okay even if I have never used their services ? How many people are rating your business that have never used it ? Sounds pretty shady to me.

A word on advertising. If you have a website, make sure you list the cities you service in your state. You can learn more about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on YouTube.com for a little free advice.

Also, Facebook now has over a billion (with a "B") registered users and if you have not familiarized yourself with Facebook, now is the time to start. Become friends with your clients and create a "Business Page" that they can follow so you can engage them in conversation online just like we do with each other here on PianoWorld.com. Also, when you comment on Facebook, type your website at the end so it links back to your site.

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Brandon Buchholzer - Presidentwww.PianoTunersByState.com-Connecting Professionals in the Piano Industry with the People Who Need Their Services. List Your Service With Us...It's Free-

I personally have had a huge amount of business come in on facebook in the last two weeks. It helped that I changed from having a business facebook page to just a regular one, this allows people to suggest you to friends. Word of mouth is the only way to build a good customer base in this business. Facebook and Twitter help keep you on their minds.

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Stewart MoorePiano Technician North Central and North East Kansas

I think a lot of good ideas have been presented. A good recommendation is the best advertising and in today's online climate, Facebook and a web site are an additional necessity. However, beyond those things, you need to consider your locale and potential customer base. How do the people you wish to attract look for professional services? This varies greatly by area. I live in a very small town, so in addition to recommendation (which is always number one)and a web presence, my customers still use the YP and surprisingly or not a local grocery store bulletin board. To those considering the ideas of door hangers or yard signs, check with the local bylaws to make sure they are allowed and again consider the community...here they would be considered an annoyance.